Occasional Papers 62

Michael Augustine Corrigan, Archbishop of New York (1885-1902), had some unpleasant encounters with lay and clerical persons and with various factions during his administration.  His encounters with Dr. Edward McGlynn and Richard Burtsell are well known. We will see the Carmelite Fathers and Italians are others.  The result of all these confrontations was a dented reputation and the dishonor of being the only archbishop of New York from the time of John McCloskey not to be named a cardinal.  These and other  difficulties, coupled with the lack of the red hat, have brought forth few positive evaluations of Corrigan from historians.  However, as is the case of everyone, Corrigan was not always at fault.  One such case, we believe, is that of James McMahon, a New York priest.

When James McMahon was the pastor of St. John=s on East 50th Street in Manhattan, Mary Farley gave him $2,395 in United States bonds for safekeeping.  When Mary died without a will, McMahon gave Farley=s sister, Margaret Bennis, only enough money to cover Mary=s funeral expenses.  Margaret Bennis then sued McMahon to recover the $2,395 that Mary Farley had originally entrusted to the priest.  At the subsequent jury trial, it was brought out that after Mary Farley=s death, McMahon indeed gave money to her heirs but it was also brought out that what he gave them was only the interest on the sum Mary Farley had originally entrusted to him.  Mary=s heirs were interested in recovering the entire sum of $2,395.  At the conclusion of the court proceedings, the jury took only a few minutes to award Margaret Bennis $2554 which was the sum claimed plus interest.[i]

James McMahon appealed the verdict to the New York State Supreme Court.  The basis of the plea was a technicality over the offer of a compromise that had been expressed in the trial testimony.  The jury=s verdict was upheld by all three judges on February 3, 1882.  McMahon had to give the heirs their money.[ii]  

McMahon offered the Irish Carmelites on September 5, 1887 a funded foundation on New York=s West Side, near the site of the present Museum of Natural History.  Michael A. Moore, the Carmelite on the scene involved in the negotiations, believed all that McMahon told him.  One such was that he supervised the construction of St. Patrick=s Cathedral.  Archbishop Corrigan not only denied this but stated that McMahon was an obstacle to the very work because he would not pay the assessments laid on his parish for the construction of the cathedral.  He also maintained that McMahon had not purchased the land at Manhattan Square for a Carmelite foundation.  He had purchased it for $123,750 in the hope that it would rise in price.  It did and he sold the parcel.  When the buyer could not make the payments, McMahon had to take it back on foreclosure.  It was at this point that he wished to give it to the Carmelites.[iii]

Peter Ward, a Carmelite stationed at Whitefriars Street in Dublin, wrote Arthur Donnelly, a chancery official, spreading some good news about McMahon all of which had apparently come originally from McMahon himself.  Continuing the line of Corrigan, Donnelly maintained that the only assistance McMahon had given to the construction of St. Patrick=s Cathedral was to sell it an organ for which he was paid cash. Classifying him as a speculator, Donnelly denied McMahon ever gave anything away and had not built the required school at his current parish of Saint Andrew=s.  Donnelly went on to state, AThe energy of Father McMahon seemed to be devoted to his estate especially to a large and valuable hotel property which he bought at the famous watering place Long Branch and other ventures equally unecclesiastical.@  Donnelly also told Ward that Michael A. Moore himself had confided to Donnelly that McMahon was Awhimsical and crotchety sulking from imaginary neglect from his archbishop.@ [iv]

The Carmelites were never able to actualize McMahon=s offer for a number of reasons not the least of which was the antipathy of Archbishop Corrigan to his priest.  In their negotiations, they even had offered to send Italian speaking priests to this foundation to care for these immigrants. Corrigan insisted that three parishes in the archdiocese were able to care for the 60,000 Italian immigrants.[v]